How to cook whole hogs pt 2

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
See part 1

Directions

"moment-of-perfection" is, so just turn him at 9:41 A.M. on Saturday.

15.After starting the hawg at 5 P.M. on Friday, continue cookin' him by adding coals now and then. You can leave him uncovered on the pit for viewing until around 10 P.M. Friday night. Then you need to cover him. Cover him first with one piece of sheet iron that DOES NOT TOUCH THE HAWG ANYWHERE EXCEPT THE FEET AND EARS. We use a special piece of bent sheet iron that does not touch the hawg. Over this sheet iron place a small tarp that covers the pit. This is essentially our cooking oven. 16.The rate at which coals are applied comes, I suppose, from experience. For the entire 24 hours of cooking, you should use slightly less than one pound of charcoal per pound of hawg. For example, for a 1OO pound dressed hawg (including head and feet), we would buy 1OO pounds of charcoal, but we would probably only use around 8O to 9O pounds of charcoal. The key to cookin' is to START SLOW and don't eveer get much faster. Just be PERSISTENT. It is a low-temperature/long-duration cooking process. Every time one of our cookers have described to someone else how to cook a hawg, they usually cook too fast and ruin the hawg. 17.After the hawg is turned over, grease will drip, or even run at times, so one should not put the coals where the grease drips. (Actually it will begin dripping long before it's turned but the greatest danger of significant grease fires occurs after turning.) We usually place the coals more around the edges after turning. This will not hurt the cooking rate because the sheet iron and tarp will be like an oven. This locating of hot coals is, of course, to prevent grease fires. We have never had a large grease fire since we started using the raised steel grate on the bottom of the pit. Before the use of the steel grate we had some big-time grease fires that even Ward would love. 18.Also after the hawg is turned you should baste (or pour) barbecue sauce on the bottom side of the hawg which is now turned up. This doesn't get any barbecue flavor into the meat, it only keeps the meat from getting dry on this side, so any kind of sauce will do. We usually serve the barbecue sauce on the side, so that people can have hot, or mild, or whatever they want, or whatever you have to offer. Repeat this basting every couple of hours.

19.When the hawg is done (by definition he is done at 5 P.M., and at this time he will bite the apple in two) pick him up by using the rods or sucker rod grate and move him to a place in the food line on the saw horses. Use two cutters, or pullers, on either side of the hawg. The best thing to do if the hawg is cooked properly is for these pullers to put on the rubber gloves (the thicker the glove the better because the meat will be hot) and simply pull the meat off and pull it apart. Do not use swine experts or veterinarians for this, as they don't seem to know the difference between a ham and a tenderloin. Be careful to not break the skin, the grease (which you will not notice dripping through) can ruin a good pair of Justin boots in no time.

NOTES : Courtesy of

Recipe by: Contributed By Dave Klose

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